Dr. Paul J. Umhoefer

Professor

Education

Ph.D. University of Washington, 1989

Contact

Research Interests

My research is focused on Tectonics of the Cenozoic Era. My main research interest is in the tectonic evolution of, and processes that form, oblique plate boundaries. More specifically, I study basins and related faults that form in these settings, and the processes and evolution of areas with mixed strike-slip and dip-slip faulting. My research is field and lab based and my students and I use the methods of structural geology, stratigraphy, and related disciplines to understand tectonic problems.

Publications

Sutherland, Kent, Harding, Umhoefer, P.J., Lizarralde, Holbrook, Gonz´alez-Fern´andez, Fletcher, Axen, 2012, Middle Miocene to early Pliocene oblique extension in the southern Gulf of California: Geosphere, v. 8, 752-770.

Brothers, Daniel, Alistair Harding, Antonio González-Fernández, W. Steven Holbrook, Graham Kent, Neal Driscoll, John Fletcher, Dan Lizarralde, Paul Umhoefer, and Gary Axen, 2012, Farallon slab detachment and deformation of the Magdalena Shelf, southern Baja California: Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 39, L09307, doi:10.1029/2011GL050828.

Dorsey, R.J., and Umhoefer, P.J., 2012, Influence of sediment input and plate-motion obliquity on basin development along an active oblique-divergent plate boundary: Gulf of California and Salton Trough, Tectonics of Sedimentary Basins: Recent Advances, First Edition. Edited by Cathy Busby and Antonio Azor, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., p. 209 – 225.

Umhoefer, P.J., 2011, Why Did the Southern Gulf of California Rupture So Rapidly? Oblique divergence across hot, weak lithosphere along a tectonically active margin: GSA Today, v. 21, no. 11, p. 4-10, doi: 10.1130/G133A.1.

Fry, M.C, A.E.Springer, and P.J. Umhoefer, 2011. Hydrogeologic implications of a fault scaling relationship in bedrock aquifers, Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, Vol. XVII, No. 4, p. 377–389.

Busch Melanie M., J Ramon Arrowsmith; Paul J Umhoefer, Joshua A Coyan, Sara Maloney, and Genaro Martínez Gutiérrez, 2011, Geometry and evolution of rift-margin, normal-fault-bounded basins from gravity and geology, La Paz - Los Cabos region, Baja California Sur, Mexico; Lithosphere, doi:/L113.1.

Umhoefer, P.J., Beard, L.S. Martin, K.L. Blythe, N., 2010, From detachment to transtensional 
faulting: A model for the 
Lake Mead extensional domain based on new ages and correlation of subbasins, in Umhoefer, Paul J., Lamb, Melissa A., Beard, L.S., eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake Mead region: Geological Society of America Special Paper 463, p. 371-394.

Lamb, M., K.L. Martin, T. 
Hickson, 
P.J. Umhoefer, L. Eaton, 2010, Deposition and age of the lower Horse Spring Formation in the 
Longwell Ridges area, in Umhoefer, Paul J., Lamb, Melissa A., Beard, L.S., eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake Mead region: Geological Society of America Special Paper 463.

Blythe, N.  Umhoefer, P.J., Duedendorfer, E.M. and Beard, L.S., 2010, Development of Salt Spring Wash basin in the hanging wall of the White Hills detachment fault, Lake Mead domain, in Umhoefer, Paul J., Lamb, Melissa A., Beard, L.S., eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake Mead region: Geological Society of America Special Paper 463.

Umhoefer, P.J., Duedendorfer, E.M., Blythe, N. and Swaney, Z., 2010, Development of Gregg basin and the western side of the southern Grand Wash 
trough during late 
stage faulting in eastern Lake Mead:  A relay ramp in a normal fault system in 
the hanging wall of the 
Grand Wash fault, in Umhoefer, Paul J., Lamb, Melissa A., Beard, L.S., eds., Miocene Tectonics of the Lake Mead region: Geological Society of America Special Paper 463.

Whitney, Donna L., Umhoefer, Paul J., Teyssier, Christian, and Fayon, Annia K., 2008, Yo-yo tectonics of the Nigde Massif during wrenching in central Anatolia: Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 17, 209-217.

Páramo, P., W. S. Holbrook, H. E. Brown, D. Lizarralde, J. Fletcher, P. Umhoefer, G. Kent, A. Harding, A. Gonzalez, and G. Axen, 2008, Seismic structure of the southern Gulf of California from Los Cabos block to the East Pacific Rise, J. Geophys. Res., 113, B03307, doi:10.1029/2007JB005113.

Note: italics are Northern Arizona University graduate students